Get a Life!

The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life, that is.

I had the chance to hang out with Melisser and pick up her book (and Kelly Paloza's The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur) at their signing at Champs Family Bakery, a few weeks ago. Yup, NYC got another vegan bakery. I sampled a small fraction of what they had on offer and while I didn't LOVE everything, I really liked most things (hellooooo pumpkin cream cheese candied nut other crazy business crumb cake!), which is more than I can say for most places.

Check out VGGTL's 3-bean chili:

Read more »

The Unphotographable

That's my lunch from Madras Mahal. It's delicious, but the photos came out so poorly I'm not even going to bother posting them. They're even terrible by my standards. Here's a picture of a guinea pig instead:

Read more »

Build a Better Bagel

If everything goes according to plan, this entry will post itself on Thursday. Happy Thanksgiving to the people who celebrate it! I'm not cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year and I have my blog posts set up in advance, so my Thanksgiving writeup will happen one day next week, probably to close out MoFo.

If I had a nickle for every time someone getting ready to visit or move to New York asked me where to get the best bagel, I'd have...at least a dollar. I spent most of my life confused by the idea of the "best" bagel because I grew up in Brooklyn, where (as far as I knew) all bagels were pretty much the same. And by "pretty much the same", I mean "the best thing in the world". In fact, I didn't even know bad bagels existed until I was in my 20s and working in midtown Manhattan. So instead of tips for finding the best bagel, here are a few ways to avoid shitty bagels:

• Don't buy them from street trucks.
• Don't buy them from (inter)national chains. This includes Starbucks, Tim Horton's and Dunkin Donuts. They may taste fine, but they're still not the same as a "real" New York bagel.
• Actually, to simplify, don't buy them any place that doesn't have the word "bagel" in the name. Or at least in big letters on a sign in the window. Or, failing that, carry at least eight different kinds and clearly does the bulk of its business in bagels.
•  Don't buy them if you're really far from NYC. Make your own, instead. It's not nearly as difficult as you'd think.

 This bagel breaks the first part of the third rule, since it's from Milk 'N Honey:

Read more »

These Boots are Made for...

...eating! We're continuing Midtown Manhattan week with pizza from Two Boots:

Read more »

So Much Food

I think I should point out that the meals you're seeing here aren't all that indicative of what I usually get for lunch. I almost never get dessert and I often get soup or a sandwich, but rarely both. I want to present a good sampling of what these places have to offer, though, so I'm splurging a bit (and sometimes finishing lunch for dinner).

Today's Midtown Manhattan lunch came from FreeFoods NYC.

Read more »

Lazy MoFo

That's me! The last week or two have kind of kicked my ass and I'm currently pet sitting, so even though I'll be cooking, I just don't have the patience to make sure it's all themed and photographed and blah blah blah. So this week's theme is Midtown Manhattan. It's considered one of New York's least vegan-friendly areas, but I'm going to prove you can eat lunch here for a whole week without going crazy. Photos will be taken at my desk, using my cameraphone, so don't expect anything spectacular. But to make up for that, there will also be pictures of the furballs I'm  hanging out with. Good deal?

OK, then. Let's start with Zen Palate.

Read more »

This is a Post...

...In which I prattle about my Caribbean vacation and what I ate there.
Let's get the obvious out of the way: Barbados is beautiful.

Moving on!

Their system of agriculture is VERY different from that of the US. I had a whole list of fruits I wanted to try, but only got to some because my host's friends and family didn't have any at the time. And we couldn't just go to the store and buy some. According to my friend, if you want breadfruit, soursopp, etc. you don't go to the store. You go to your neighbor, who cuts some off the tree for you. One person seemed offended we went to the coconut guy (below) instead of getting our coconut water from him.

Read more »

Looking Forward to Leftovers

One thing the veg-friendly of NYC look forward to this time of year is the Thanksgiving Leftovers Sandwich from 'SNice (which now has two locations). This year, I was inspired to make my own.

Read more »

Month of 1000 Birthdays

Well, just five, really. But they were all mine! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Ahem.

Sorry.

Aaaaanyway...Sunday, May 10, was my birthday, but I've been fortunate enough to have it acknowledged five times this month. All with awesome edibles.

The first time was my office birthday party on the seventh. Since I like baking and finding vegan cake in midtown Manhattan is kind of a pain in the ass, I make my own birthday cake every year and my boss reimburses me $20 for it. This year, I made a giant chocolate mint cupcake (please note the phone in the background for scale):



I tripled the Chocolate Mint Cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and covered it with mint icing, Quick Melty Ganache and chocolate mint lentils. It was dangerously good. The mint makes the cake seem lighter than regular chocolate cake, and this cake pan kind of keeps you from going overboard with the icing, so if you're not careful, you can just keep eating this cake until suddenly your platter is empty and you've gained twenty pounds. Twenty tasty, tasty pounds. If you haven't tried this recipe yet (and like mint), please do. But proceed with caution.

The absolute best part of making the chocolate mint cake is...well...did you ever buy the mint Girl Scout cookies? Do you remember the aroma that would waft out and hit you in the face when you opened the box? Well, when you're making this cake, your ENTIRE KITCHEN SMELLS LIKE MINT GIRL SCOUT COOKIE WAFTINGS! It's an amazing thing. If you have a really tiny apartment, you can probably hotbox yourself in minty goodness. Awesome.

In case you're wondering, I made it using this cake pan, which was a gift from the same awesome people who gave me the boat cake pan. I guess they kind of know me pretty well. If you want to see how the cake assembly works, just browse backward from here.

Then, the Tofu Takedown was on my actual birthday. Obviously, I celebrated with lots of cannoli. Then we moved the party to Curly's Lunch, followed by Lula's Sweet Apothecary, where I got carrot cake ice cream (in a sugar cone!!) which tasted like the creamiest pumpkin pie ever. It was difficult to keep my pants on (especially since I was wearing a dress).

May 16 was mostly a celebration for other people, but I received my share of birthday wishes and brought the Raspberry Chocolate Chip Blondie Bars from Vegan With a Vengeance. They're definitely one of my favorite things and only take about an hour to make, which is pretty awesome. I didn't take any pictures this time, but they looked just like the ones I made for Election Day.

My family and I celebrated my birthday, Mother's Day and my mother's birthday (the 8th) on the 17th because I was busy taking down tofu on the 10th. I tried to make a cake out of the Brooklyn vs. Boston Cream Pie recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, but kind of failed:



Pastry creme is just not what to use when trying to stick layers together. I should have known that from my last pastry creme debacle, but no one ever said I was a fast learner. I spent a good part of my afternoon cleaning ganache and pastry creme off the door of my refrigerator. I will not tell you whether or not I licked the fridge.

Lastly, my friends and I celebrated my birthday on the 24th in Philadelphia. Thanks to an awesome friend who did all sorts of veganny research, we ate at Basic Four Vegetarian Snack Bar and New Harmony Vegetarian Restaurant. At Basic Four, I had the best freaking tofu scramble I've ever eaten that I didn't make myself. Their potatoes are really good too. Most importantly, there was vegan Philly cheesesteak. I don't have words for how good this was, so just eat it with your eyes:



Please note that the picture does not do it justice.

New Harmony was a vegan Chinese buffet of awesomeness. Even the tea, orange slices and pineapple chunks were better than most. I gave faux shrimp another try (the first time I tried it, it tasted like fish - BLECH!) and even liked that.

Another friend brought Mexican Hot Chocolate cupcakes from VCTOTW. They're always wonderful and were a great pick-me-up between finding twenty (yes, TWENTY) geocaches and visiting The Mutter Museum, which is more than slightly awesome.

If you're reading this, good job with the vegan food, Philadelphia! I want to walk in your subway tunnels and eat many of your sandwiches!

Dont Fear the Seitan

So I was all psyched up to make Julie Hasson's famous sausages this weekend when my friend said she'd gotten BBQ seitan at a restaurant. Follower that I am, I wanted BBQ seitan too, so I made the BBQ Seitan and Crispy Coleslaw Sandwich from Veganomicon. Isa and Terry say the sandwich is based on one they had at 'Snice and few things can recommend a recipe to me more strongly than a comparison to 'Snice, so I was sold. I made Simple Seitan, Backyard BBQ Sauce and Home-Style Potato Rolls (all from VCON), put it all together with some coleslaw (included in sandwich recipe) and a bit of Vegannaise and died and went to heaven.

I know a lot of people are wary of making seitan. After The Lambs' Brains Debacle of '08, I understand why (thanks to Trina for that visual). But this was my second time making the Simple Seitan, and it's wonderful yet again. Clearly, it wasn't beginner's luck. This is just a fool proof way to make seitan. And to prove seitan making isn't scary or difficult (just time consuming), I'm going to take you through it with pictures (I think I did this last time, too, but I definitely took more pictures this time). In case you're not interested in all that, here's what my mouth is going to see as soon as this is posted:



The beginning of making seitan isn't much different from baking. Mix your dry ingredients (in this case, vital wheat gluten and nutritional yeast):



Mix your wet ingredients (oil, garlic, soy sauce and some other stuff):



Combine your wet and dry. Mix it up, knead it for a while and cut it in thirds:



Throw it in a pot with some broth, bring it to a boil, simmer for a while, drain:



Tada! Your seitan is done and ready to be used in the recipe of your choice. It was my choice to slice it up:



And grill it in a grill pan brushed with peanut oil:



I think grill marks are sexy:



I tossed the grilled seitan in the Backyard BBQ Sauce and re-grilled:



Hot grill lines:



Don't forget to make your coleslaw:



Then, slice a roll in half, give it a little shmear of Vegannaise, a drizzle of BBQ sauce if you have bigger balls than me (the Backyard BBQ Sauce is too spicy for me plain, but it's perfect in the sandwich), pile on your coleslaw, top that with seitan, squish down the top bun and have the best lunch ever. It's one of the many recipes I've found in Veganomicon that leave me thinking "I can't believe this came out of my kitchen!"

I Fail, Sorry

Point the first: Sorry I haven't kept up with this blog much this month. I have been cooking (and I've certainly been eating!), I just wasn't feeling very writey. I hope I'll be better now. All apologies.

Point the second: Thank you to those who contacted me to make sure I'm OK. Don't worry, I haven't fallen too hard off the wagon. I'm not smothered in fried foods or cheese or anything like that.

Point the third: I thought I had something else to say here, but I don't remember what it is. Might as well get straight to the catching up, then.

Point the fourth: Before I start talking about everything I've cooked lately, I'd like to briefly mention to things I didn't. The rest of this post will be my two cents on the restaurants I've been to this month.

4 Course Vegan

The food is great, but the atmosphere really makes it. It's like you're going to a secret, professionally catered, dinner party only about two dozen people know about. The atmosphere is so homey you may forget you have to pay at the end. Especially since there's no cashier. We all just walked up and paid the chef as we left.

Despite the name, we actually received five courses:

Cashew cheese and parsnip ravioli with a sweet potato cake topped with a horseradish sauce
Hot-n-Sour Lemongrass Broth with Kabocha Dumpling and Sweet Pea Greens
Rice Flour Crepe with 5-spice Black Beans and Sesame Chile Oil
Masmun Curry with Garnet Yam, Thai Basil and Toasted Cashews
Chocolate Almond Torte with Blood Orange Syrup and Vanilla Cream

All delicious. The portions were small, because it's "gourmet", but five courses of small portions are really enough to fill you up. The main courses seemed quite light, but the dessert was dense, filling up any left over room we may have had. I ended up staying out until after 5 AM that night and didn't stop for any kind of snack.

Very recommended. Would definitely go again, preferably for some sort of occasion.

The V Spot

I've been here a few times and am always pleased with what I order. One word of caution: they really like to slather on the sauce.

Their nachos are amazing. I had them when I still ate dairy and couldn't care less that I wasn't eating the real thing. The chicken parmesean was great and there was SO much of it. I shared it with everyone at the table and everyone left with sauce on their pants. The BBQ seitan wrap is a real treat, sort of maply and all sorts of delicious, but not for eating on the go. After half, my hands looked like the end of the movie Carrie and I needed a bit of assistance getting to a sink to wash up without making a mess. The meatball parmesean hero was great. It's all flattened out, so it's not difficult to handle (naturally, I ate the neat sandwich sitting there and took the messy wrap to go) and it's very, very tasty. The cheese was borderline melty, too.

Wheeler's Frozen Desserts

They had another NYC event last week. They brought ginger, margarita and what I think was mango ice creams, all of which were delightful. Hannah Kaminsky of My Sweet Vegan brought a crumble, bundt cake, cookies, brownies and I'm not even sure what else. The crumble and bundt cake were divine. I brought an enormous batch 5-Spice Almond Cookies from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan, which seemed to be pretty well received (more on that later because that counts as something I made).

'SNice

If you're in the NYC area, do yourself a favor and visit 'SNice at least once. When I saw the menu, I really wanted to try the Chicken Pot Pie Wrap, but several people suggested the Vegan Panini, so I went with that and was not disappointed. It was heavenly. I don't know who the genius is who thought of smoking the tofu, but I'd like to give him or her a great big kiss. Also, the sandwich is huge. Each half should really be a serving, but I ate the whole thing. And a dessert. I got the Apricot Square and it was all sorts of goodness. It's always exciting to be able to eat sweets I didn't make myself.

Also, I am currently battling an addiction to Caramel Brownie Luna Bars. It's been about a week since my last one. Luna, Lara, Cliff and Odwalla bars are all vegan, but Luna Bars have a crunchy thing going on that I find far too exciting.

Wheelers Black Label OMG!

Yesterday was the Wheelers Black Label Vegan Ice Cream Tasting Party at Little Cakes Gallery. DAMN that was good stuff!

Of course, it was an ice cream party on the coldest day of the year, but that didn't stop my friend Lauren and I. It just made us walk faster, so we were the first people there. They were still setting up their serving table when we got there. Not only was there VEGAN ICE CREAM, but there was a nice selection of fresh fruit available to top it with.

The space was tiny and the demand was high, so once people started showing up, there really wasn't much room to move. After a while, there were people standing outside eating ice cream (the "real feel temperature" was around 7 F)! That's dedication.

The first flavor we were given was peanut butter chip. I'm not a huge fan of peanut butter, but the addition was quite subtle, so I enjoyed it. Next up was espresso chip, which I had some blackberries on, so that helped mask the coffee flavor (I don't like coffee either). Third was chocolate coconut, which I liked a lot despite my general aversion to coconut (yes, this was very weird: conceptually, I knew I shouldn't like any of the flavors, but I did!). I liked chewing on the little bits of coconut. They broke out the big guns last: Mexican chocolate. It was spiced just right and I almost melted into a pile of goo right there from it. It was that good. When this stuff hits stores, it better come in barrels.

The ice cream itself was awesome. Very creamy. I'd never know it was non-dairy (they use soy). This event filled me with great joy since I hadn't eaten ice cream since July or August and I really missed it!

Despite what we'd like to believe, man cannot live on ice cream alone, so we followed that with brunch at Kate's Joint (a vegetarian diner sort of place with a bar that plays great - though repetitive - music).

Kate's does have eggs and cheese on the menu, but they also have tofu and vegan cheese options for all of those dishes. Rock. I got Kate's Benedict with tofu and vegan hollandaise. It was really, really good, except when I dropped about half of it in my lap (I found a chunk of tofu in my wallet when it was time to pay). Lauren got the Breakfast Burrito, which looked like a pretty standard (though big) breakfast burrito. She said it was tasty and chock full of protein. Even though it's not technically brunch fare, when we saw UnChicken Wings on the menu, we couldn't resist them and we got those too. They were very spicy and tasty, but also very tofu-y. They didn't imitate meat as well as those at Red Bamboo (which actually come on a stick!), but they were still really good. It's a cute place, right by the Mercury Lounge and Downtown Yarns and they're open late, so I'll definitely go back.

Wings!



Kate's Benedict

Misc.

1. Flipped and rotated the tofu for the jerky again last night. Allowed myself a taste and it was still very firm and pickled and spicy, but not overly so. If I get home at a reasonable hour, I'll but it on the dehydrator tonight (2 AM just didn't seem like the right time).

2. When I was in school, I used to order my groceries (except produce) from peapod.com all the time. I've decided it's time to give them another shot. I don't know if I trust them since they don't carry peanut oil, but I'm attempting to do my shopping through them this week. Even produce. Will let you know how it goes.

3. Advice: If you've eaten beets, keep in mind that you've eaten beets. That way, you don't have a panic attack when you go to the restroom.

4. I just found a recipe I really want to make on a vegetarian-friendly omni site, but when I read the description, it said "I threw this together the other night when my wine club came over and liked it enough to make it again as a side dish / vegetarian main dish on Thanksgiving." I beg your pardon, but a side dish is a side dish and a main dish is a main dish. An extra large side dish serving is NOT a main dish for a vegetarian! We're allowed real food, with courses and sides too, honest! That really roasts my chestnuts.

Another thing that grinds my grits: went for Japanese with my family on Sunday and ordered a dish called "Vegetable Bi...something" I don't even remember what the third word was. It was BLAND. And didn't have any vegetables in it except scallions, pea pods and bak choy. It was very clear that this was just a meat dish with the meat omitted, not a vegetable dish. How can they call it "Vegetable...." without any real vegetables in it?! The mind boggles.

Sorry this post is so ranty, I've just been having that kinds of day. And it is vegan-related.

Vegan =/= Healthy

In my experience, there are three types of vegan food (OK, there are lots more than three, but please bear with me for the sake of simplicity): Healthy Food, Last Resort Food and Holy Crap This is Real Food Food.

Healthy Food - I think this is the food most omnis think of when they think vegan. It's often raw, is basically just processed fruits and vegetables and may contain grains most omnis have never heard of. Usually tastes "healthy" and may smell like hippie.

Last Resort Food - How many servings of mashed potatoes have we all eaten, not because we love potatoes (though I do!), but because there was nothing else without meat in it on the menu? French fries? Onion rings? "Garden salads" consisting of a plate of lettuce and three cherry tomatoes? This is the food we eat because there's no other alternative where we are and it begs the question "How many side dishes does it take to make an entree?"

Holy Crap This is Real Food Food - Veggie dumplings. Jerk seitan. Hearty soups. Sesame tofu. Stuffed mushrooms. Curries. This is food that's awesome, regardless of your nutritional preferences. Put it together and you get real meals, with courses and everything.

When I prepare and eat the Healthy Food, I almost feel virtuous. Here is tasty food that I can eat without any fat and calorie-related guilt. Not only that, but in many cases, it's pure, unadulterated food. I can look at what I'm eating and know exactly what all the components are. I can even identify the herbs and spices. They're not hidden under thick sauces or breading. The vitamins and enzymes are largely intact. It makes me feel like I'm getting the most out of my food. It also makes me feel like a "real" vegan; omnis probably don't have much use for raw lasagna. I get a lot of my Healthy recipes from the message board on therawfoodsite.com. If you're in NYC, Quintessence is a nice raw, vegan, organic place. The food is both tasty and presented well. You don't walk out thinking "Shit, I could have not-cooked that at home and saved $20".

Last Resort Food can sometimes be pretty great; I've had many a fabulous emergency salad. But for every good salad, I've had three that were just lettuce and too much dressing (or worse, overpriced, bitter greens and too much dressing). And let's not forget the places that don't even make salads (or if they do, they all have meat in them).

This past Sunday, I went to Saint's Alp Teahouse with some friends to celebrate a birthday. The first bummer was remembering they make their milk teas with actual milk, so my favorite taro was out (Gobo uses soy milk. Vegans and lactose intolerants rejoice!). I ended up with jasmine green tea, which was actually really good and I'll definitely get it again. Most of the bubble tea I drink doesn't actually taste like tea. This did. I like tea.

The next bummer was the realization that everything on their menu was either a beverage, had meat in it or was deep fried. I guess I should be thankful there are any vegan options on the menu at all, but really, who wants to eat spring rolls and "crispy bean curd" when they're minding their health? Not me. I ended up with the samosas, kind of hoping they'd be baked, but they weren't (duh). They were pretty tasty, but I've definitely had better.

Holy Crap This is Real Food Food practically makes life with living. Without places like Red Bamboo Soul Cafe and Buddha Bodai, I know I'd personally feel rather out of the food loop. The food at these places is so tasty that my omni friends suggest going there instead of the other way around. And it's not all about the "fake" food. Dishes like Black Bean Ginger Stir-Fry and Bean Curd with Organic Mushrooms and Basil are filling and wonderful without even a hint of wannabe meat, fish or dairy.

There was only one thing I disliked about my favorite restaurants: the knowledge I'd never be able to come even close to making anything like what they serve at home. Then I got Vegan With a Vengeance and Veganomicon. Now I can make "real" food like Hot Sauce Glazed Tempeh, Chickpea Noodle Soup and samosas at home. This fills me with unadulterated joy. I don't know how to artistically "plate" a meal yet, but I'm getting there!

And I think it should be noted that there really isn't much healthy about (for example) General Tso's Mock Chicken. Sure, it's tofu, but it's deep fried and smothered in a sugary sauce (mmm....sugary, sugary goodness). A lot of people are under the impression that food must be healthy if it's vegan, but a quick flip through the Veganomicon will tell you that's not the case. An egg and dairy-free chocolate cake is still a chocolate cake (a yummy, yummy chocolate cake). It's important to be careful about what we eat, vegan, vegetarian, omni or whatever. We won't be much help to the animals we're trying to protect if we OD on fried vegetables, after all.

And now I'll hop off my soapbox.